Those Damned Enineers

In the waning days of World War II, the Allied advance has Axis forces on the run. In a desperate move to stop the Allies from reaching Germany, ADOLF HITLER hatches a plan, to take the port town of Antwerp, splitting the Allied forces in half and cutting their supply lines, allowing Nazi reinforcements to beat them back and buy the Axis one more chance at victory. To accomplish this, he tasks Commander JOACHIM PEIPER with leading a division of Tiger II tanks to Antwerp, focusing on speed and surprise to capture Allied supply lines and force the army to divide. Peiper is worried about Allied air support, but with a heavy snowstorm approaching the area, the Planes will be grounded, giving the Axis a huge advantage. Meanwhile, on the European front, a regiment of the Army Corps of Engineers are enjoying a quiet time behind Allied lines, lacking so much work that the Allies may be asking them to build houses instead of anything military related. That is, until the Germans arrive. Storming the town of Melmedy, France, the German Tanks tear through the unsuspecting Allied lines with ease. However, despite the danger, the Engineers and their commander, DAVID, leap into action. With their General killed in front of them by Mortar fire, David, as ranking officer, takes command and makes the weighty decision to stay and fight. Accompanied by his men, the combat-hardened WHISTLER, a signal corpsmen fond of melodies, the meek BAILY, cowboy soldier ROWDY, practical BERNIE, Surfer with blood on his hands TED, and a host of other brothers in arms, David is determined to halt the Nazi advance the only way an engineer can, by blowing the bridges that lead to Antwerp. But what they don't know is that Melmedy holds a special significance to Peiper: His former lover MARIE lives there, and he's aiming to reunite with her or level the town trying. Despite some men turning tail and deserting, the remaining engineers follow David's plan to halt the German advance, by taking what little supplies they have left and detonating the bridges. After calculating just how much fuel the German's are burning with their focus on taking Antwerp by surprise, the Engineers find out that if they can delay them, the Nazi tanks will waste enough fuel that will become useless to the Germans, bridges or not. Behind the German lines, Peiper attempts to reunite with Marie, but she rejects him once more. Bitter and emboldened, he orders the town of Melmedy sacked. His tanks are initially successful, keeping the Allies on the run with constant mortar strikes and superior firepower, but he soon runs into problems. With David's Engineers destroying the bridges, he's eating up too much fuel cutting across country, and the Allied Fuel reserves he was relying on were becoming fewer and fewer in number. But the Engineers weren't done yet, after destroying another fuel dump, depriving the Nazis of the gas they need to take the Tanks to Antwerp, Peiper realizes he must cross the bridges before the skies clear or the Engineers destroy them. With his fuel running low, The Germans make one last, desperate push for their objective, but after running into a nest of traps and Bazooka fire laid by the Engineers, the snowstorm clears, and the roar of Allied bombers can be heard, destroying the tank division and putting the area back under Allied control. Marie looks on Peiper with pity as he's captured by the Allies and sent to Nuremburg for trial, although he's let off with time served due to a clerical error. The men don't get to bask in their victory, however, despite their defeat of the German advance, there's a war to fight, one a united Allied Force would soon achieve. Years later, Peiper lives a simple life in the French Countryside, but one day feels as though he's being watched. While writing his memoirs one night, his house explodes, killing him. Despite the arson never being officially solved, locals say they heard whistling at the scene.